Saints ballpark’s project team may be selected by week’s end (update)

The new St. Paul Saints ballpark will be built on the site of the former Diamond Products factory at Fifth Street and Broadway, across from the St. Paul Farmers’ Market in Lowertown. (File photo: Bill Klotz)

Roughly two months after releasing a request for proposals for the new St. Paul Saints ballpark, the city of St. Paul is close to announcing its lineup to design and build the stadium.

A design-build team for the $54 million, 7,000-seat ballpark in St. Paul’s Lowertown area near Fifth and Broadway streets could be revealed by the end of the week, a city official said Wednesday. Proposals were due Dec. 19.

Alex Dumke, public information officer for the city’s Department of Human Rights & Equal Opportunity, said in an email that the city “hopes to announce who the selected proposer is soon — Thursday or Friday.”

The city will then start negotiations with the selected proposer, he said. The city hopes to have an executed contract by Jan. 25. The stadium is scheduled to open in time for the 2015 baseball season.

John Jensvold, project development director at PCL’s Burnsville office, said all three interviews happened Wednesday morning. “We were told there would be a very quick turnaround on the decision,” he said.

In mid-September, Ryan Cos. was announced as the design-builder, but the city later opened the work up for competing proposals after critics questioned the lack of competitive bidding on the project, which is being built with public money.

All three proposers and their design partners have stadium experience. Kansas City-based Populous is best known locally for designing Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium, and Los Angeles-based AECOM designed the Lambeau Field renovation, among other projects.

DLR Group, which has an office in Minneapolis, has designed 22 ballparks in the last 10 years, including small urban venues like the 4,600-seat Bowling Green Ballpark in Bowling Green, Ky.

Funding sources for the Saints project include the state ($25 million), the city ($17 million), and the Saints ($10 million). Another $2 million is to be determined.

Finance & Commerce raised questions about the city’s lack of bidding on the project in early October. The Taxpayers League of Minnesota later filed a lawsuit, alleging that the city violated contracting laws by awarding the work to Ryan without competitive bids.

City officials argued they were in compliance with the law and that it made sense for everyone involved to award the contract to Ryan, which has worked with the Saints on stadium plans.

The city initially said it would fight the lawsuit, but Mayor Chris Coleman reversed course after Gov. Mark Dayton said he couldn’t support the project without competitive bids.

The city announced Oct. 17 it would issue a request for proposals. The RFP was released in mid-November.